American Humanism and Sociology of Religion

Journal of Applied Philosophy

Philip Kitcher has recently worried that the New Atheists, by mounting an attack against religion tout court, risk alienating a large swath of ‘religious’ people whose way of life is, to Kitcher’s mind, innocuous. Encouraging a more moderate response, Kitcher thinks certain non-threatening modes of religious existence should be protected. In this paper, I argue that while Kitcher’s attempt to provide balance to the secularism debate is a great service, he ultimately fails to distinguish innocuous modes of religious belief from more threatening modes, a failing that allows the debate to return to its previous extremes. In drawing attention to the shortcomings of Kitcher’s approach, I make the humanist’s argumentative burden explicit: the defender of a ‘moderate’ secular humanism must show that people who arrange their lives around belief in a transcendent being are more likely to do ethical harm than those that don’t.

ABSTRACT It is truism in human life that man lives in an odd world in which he strives to live a religious life, but human value play a very contrary role to the quest for re religiosity. Consequently it becomes almost impossible to attain perfection in religion vis-a-vis man diverse interest in human value. This paper is focused at the modern era of humanism or philosophical anthropocentrism whereby man gives primacy to human value denying God his existence. This is exemplified in man's quest for materialistic and political pursuit in our contemporary Nigerian Society.

Auguste Comte is lawwn not only as the founder of sociology, positivism, and histoıy of science, he is also responsibi e for founding of a new religion: Religion of Humanity. Some scholars have argued that the Religion of Humanity was but a biographical accident resulting from Comte 's platonic lovefor Clotilde de Vaux. Against these assertions, this article hopes to show that it is misleading to reduce the emergence of a new mavement to a single cause. The Religion of Humanity, therefore, is closely related to histoıy, culture, and socio-political backgroımd of Europe in general but of French society in particular.

I propose we discuss pluralistic humanism as an alternative to both atheism and traditional theism in an e ort to establish a democratic faith to which we, despite our di erences, can bind ourselves. I draw on the thought of American pragmatists (James, Dewey, Rorty, and Kitcher) to articulate a con- structive criticism of new atheists (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens). is criticism primarily focuses on the unacknowledged a nities between religion and scienti c atheism—namely, a naive realism and a conversion experience—with the hope of using such common ground as a starting point for not only shared experience but for self-examination. I conclude with the proposal that we take up a Deweyan conception of democracy as a common faith aimed at e ecting religious or spiritual experiences despite the tradi- tional oppression of institutional religion.

Atheists and secular humanists have always been a minority in American society, and not the most popular one. There are still laws in several states preventing non-theists from holding office. Just as evangelical Protestants up until 100 years ago had a largely optimistic view of the future and the end times, known as postmillennialism, atheists had likewise expected that a progressive, secular "kingdom" would emerge as societies threw off a primitive theistic mindset and matured into educated adulthood. As historian Sidney Warren (1966:231) writes of atheist movements in the 18th and 19th centuries: "Freethinkers never doubted the correctness of their position, for they viewed history as a continuous struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

Ecumenical Review, 2018

In a modern and secularized world, churches and religious groups that fight in the public sphere for social justice justify these actions in the name of defending human rights. This has been the path taken to express in non-religious language what they understand to be a God-given mission. Based on the distinction between civil rights, political rights, and social rights, which make up the set of human rights, this article analyzes the relationship between the notion of religious mission and the struggle for human rights; how neoliberal ideology, in an anti-humanist perspective, criticizes the notion of social rights and social justice with the denial of any human right above the laws of the market; and the challenges that this neoliberal ideology poses for the justification of the social and political action of religious groups and institutions in the contemporary globalized world with a growing post/ anti-humanist culture.

Dr Neville Buch ABN 86703686642, 2024

This paper examines the question, “When Humanists Know Nothing of Humanism Contrast to the Comprehensive History”, that is, what do many contemporary humanists miss in their thinking, when they have not the in-depth comprehension of humanism? The paper will achieve an answer by surveying the comprehensive thinking of 40 critical thinking philosophers who may or may not be called, “humanist” but contributed very important ideas in humanist traditions (note plural).

*This is a revised version of “a post "Becoming Kinder Gentler Humanists” from my blog The Humanist Challenge. It was originally written in 2011. Even though this essay is dated, a current review of AHA's activites shows that my opinion hasn’t changed and that the organization is still as anti-religion as it was when I was there.

2017